're finished. it's almost ma could cabremacab. >> we have talkedaboutbillclintonasa super surrogate for barack obama. mike, the guy in that ad, he's a super anti-surrogate, an anti-validater of mitt romney. he looks like the voter that barack obama needed to change sides, that former reagan democrat, that white working class guy looking dead into the camera and saying this guy destroyed us. he took away our livelihood and he made us build the stage that we had to stand on to announce the end of our jobs. it was absolutely the most devastating ad, but what was also remarkable as the romney people had no response. look, they had a six-month lead time on this line of attack because, remember, something called winning our future pac? they ran a 27 minute ad of this same message. romney because he survived in florida after that, he seemed to think i can get over this because he didn't respond. >> i talked to -- >> jane mayer, you write in your piece that sarah palin of all people thought that the bain ad had a negative impact on mitt romney's candidacy. she thinks it worked. here she is

the bush tax rates for everyone except top income earners. suchabillpassedthe senate but is stuck in the house. if no such bill passes by end of the year, in january all the income tax rates will go back up to the clinton tax rates. so if republicans in the house succeed in preventing anything from happening this time, something will actually happen, and everyone's tax rates will go up. joining me, justin reuben and ezra klein. ezra, i want to start with you on something. justin was in the room with the president today, i am going to torture him in a second to get what the president said. we have what's being treated as breaking news tonight by some of the newspapers that the president's tax revenue target in going forward is 1.6 trillion. it is something he said before when he said his opening position negotiating this is his past budget position. but what is the emphasis now on the 1.6 trillion in additional tax revenue due to where the tax discussions are going to go. >> they are looking for 1.6 trillion. but people are missing what's important about the white house position. w